The regular season is almost here. A few roster spots are up for grabs. Talk about the things that interest you here. And be good to each other, we’re all on the same team.
Category Archives: 01. Site Features
The case for Jake Diekman to make the opening day roster
As of this writing, the Phillies bullpen is still in flux, and Jake Diekman is still in major league camp. I had a chance to watch him close out yesterday’s game against the Red Sox, and I have to say, he certainly deserves a spot on the 25 man roster. He is currently on the 40 man roster, and thus a move would not have to be made in terms of clearing a spot for his contract to be purchased. I wrote this about him this winter when compiling my Top 30 prospects, where he just missed:
Jake Diekman, LHP – The Phillies protected him on the 40 man roster, and he’s a conversion project of sorts, as he’s begun to throw from a low-almost sidearm angle. You can see his delivery here in action against former Phillies farmhand Anthony Gose. That just looks toxic on lefties. And there is a good chance he carves out a JC Romero-esque career. But I’m not sure that merits a spot in the Top 30. Maybe it does. But maybe not.
He struggled a bit with his control last season at AA, walking 44 in 65 innings. He has swing and miss stuff, evident in the 83 strikeouts in those same 65 innings. And lefties can’t touch him. But I was impressed that he was able to generate some bad swings against the RHB he faced yesterday. The final out of the game did come on a mistake fastball he left up that was hit sharply to centerfield, but after watching him pitch, I think he has what it takes to stick in the big league pen right now. More importantly, Antonio Bastardo is still not 100% healthwise, working through a bit of a dead arm period. The Phillies leaned heavily on Bastardo last season, and he started to wear down a bit in the 2nd half of the season. With the Phillies current rotation being what it is, the bullpen figures to see less work than any other NL team again this year. Looking at the pitching staff, assuming the Phillies carry 12 pitches, these guys are locked in:
SP: Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Worley, Blanton
RP: Papelbon, Bastardo, Contreras, Stutes, Kendrick, Qualls
That is 11. That also assumes that Contreras is ready for Opening Day. If the Phillies do go with 12, they can slot Diekman right in to the final spot. If they go with 11 and Contreras is not ready, Diekman can take his spot. With Kendrick in the bullpen, there is no real urgency to carry another multi-inning reliever in Herndon. The only other competition for the final spot would come from Aumont (who was optioned) and Savery. While Savery has pitched well, Diekman’s ability to destroy LHP should give him an edge. Its a nice problem for the Phillies to have right now, but given what he has shown this spring, especially the fact that he’s issued only 1 walk in 5 innings, I think Diekman deserves the final spot. We should know more in the next week.
Minor League Workgroups (21March2012)
Thanks to reader “gkjdk” for taking a picture of the work groups yesterday and sending it my way. Remember, these groups aren’t hard and fast groupings of where prospects will start, but they do give us some idea how the org feels about particular guys and how advanced/ready they are. Click this link, the photo is too big to display.
Just a few things I find interesting:
* Jiwan James is working out with Group 1, and Tyson Gillies is in Group 2.
* Miguel Alvarez is in group 2, after struggling last year at Lakewood
* Kevin Walter is in group 5
Tell me what jumps out at you.
More Cuts
The Phils annouced four additonal roster moves this morning, none especially surprising. Optioned were RP Michael Schwimer along with RP Phillipe Aumont. Re-Assigned were pitchers Jeremy Horst and David Purcey. All should play pivotal roles in Lehigh Valley this year and I would expect major league time this year from at least two of the four above.
Spring Training Discussion, week of 19 March
If anyone is still in Clearwater, I’d much appreciate you going and picking up the minor league work groups sheet and scanning/emailing it to me. Thanks!
Minor League Releases
The minor league numbers game has resulted in several early releases from Minor League camp. Included among those released this weekend were OF Brian Gump, SS Alan Schoenberger, P Ryan Feireabend and P Jesus Pirela. More news as it rolls in….
First Hand Report, 18 March 2012
Thanks to Murray for this quick first hand summary. Enjoy.
Good time at the minor league complex today. In the CWater game, Colvin pitched very well, allowing one run but threw a good fastball and a very good curve. He is definitely in much better shape than last year, having dropped some weight. Their lineup was Myers 8, Eldemire 9, Thome 3, Franco 5, Altherr 7, Rupp 2, Pointer dh (he was originally batting 3rd before Thome came), T Greene 6, Ford 4. Noteworthy: Eldemire said he feels great, swung the bat well, and is much faster than I thought. T Greene looked good but is young and very thin. Franco had two hits (batting 4th!) and looked very good at 3rd. Malcolm played 2nd for half the game and looked good to me. Morgado did fine. Pettis closed and looked very good. In the LWood game, Lino started and looked just ok with some control issues. Lineup was Quinn 6 (looks 16! he’s very fast but didn’t do much), Hudson 8 (looked ok), Walding 5 (batted 3rd and looked very good with a couple hits), L Greene dh (he’s huge – hit some balls hard and ran ok), Duffy 3 (in MUCH better shape than last year and hit the ball very well), Logan Moore 2, Numata dh (looked over matched), Amaro 7, Cardozzo 4. Musser pitched 2 good innings but gave up a long homer. Best was ok. Nick Hernandez told me he’s hoping to pitch in CWater by the all star break. As in previous years, the size of the pitchers is amazing.
Dontrelle Willis Released
The Phillies released LHP Dontrelle Willis this morning after three extrmemly unimpressive Spring outings. Willis, 31, was projected to be the seocnd lefty out of the bullpen for the Phils. This opens the door wide open for Rich Dubee favorite Jacob Diekman, who has had an impressive Spring thus far. Diekman, struggled initially at Reading during this first part of 2011, but came on very strong towards the end of last season.
I need your help, 2012 edition
I wanted to write up a quick post here as the minor league season approaches. I hope each and every one of you here will read this and take it to heart.
When I started this site, I had no idea what it would turn in to. In the 5+ years this site has been around, its grown exponentially. Along with this growth, there have been challenged. I’ve changed jobs and have less time to write. I’ve brought in a bunch of really great resources who have helped me provide great content year round. We’ve gone from a handful of comments a day to…well, a lot more. People have contributed lots of great stuff here, both in the comments, via email, and in the way of guest posts. As I mentioned, I’m a very busy person, and I’m only one person. I do not have hours a day to police the comments section of posts. I don’t have time to yell at every person being offensive and disruptive. For the most part, and considering the internet message board medium as a whole, we have far fewer problems here than elsewhere. For those of you who have been here for a while, you know that my request of you is to simply ignore the people trying to inflame the discussions and get a rise out of you. The post tacked to the top of the site features a link to the FAQ and rules. You can find it by clicking here. I welcome any and all opinions, but I require civility at all times. At all times. If you continually buck the rules and insult others, you won’t be long for this place.
Now that I got that out of the way, here are the ways you can help this site improve in 2012:
* Go to games, make notes on our prospects, and send these reports to my via email. I will post them as “First Hand Scouting Reports” and everyone will be very grateful for what you give us.
* Take video.
9 players optioned/re-assigned to minor league camp
Per this quick post, the following players have been re-assigned:
Dave Bush
Austin Hyatt
Pat Misch
JC Ramirez
BJ Rosenberg
Sebastian Valle
Cesar Hernandez
Harold Garcia
Tyson Gillies
No real surprises here. A lot of these guys will benefit from regular ABs/innings in minor league ST games instead of sitting on the bench for the MLB spring games.
Phuture Phillies 